Sweeping Zen » The Official Blog of Herb Eko Deerhttp://sweepingzen.com
The Who's Who of Zen BuddhismThu, 19 Feb 2015 15:23:18 +0000en-UShourly1http://wordpress.org/?v=4.1.1Enabling Zen – The history of no historyhttp://sweepingzen.com/enabling-zen-history-history/
http://sweepingzen.com/enabling-zen-history-history/#commentsMon, 06 Jan 2014 06:55:03 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=697So I have been involved in some Zen teachers e-groups that talk about everything from congratulations to new teachers to why some new teachers are not allowed. As a new teacher it has been daunting and exciting to try to introduce myself into the culture both socially and spiritually. I have tried to ask questions ...

]]>So I have been involved in some Zen teachers e-groups that talk about everything from congratulations to new teachers to why some new teachers are not allowed. As a new teacher it has been daunting and exciting to try to introduce myself into the culture both socially and spiritually. I have tried to ask questions about how things work, how certain issues get addressed, why some issues are not addressed, and offer observations about what aspects of the prevalent teachers culture is not working, and what seems to be working great.

After about 6 months to a year of these back and forths, my overriding take on this situation is that it is a very deep and mostly unconscious enabling environment.

Enabling is essentially a function of suffering. Without suffering, there is nothing to enable, and so it is a symbiotic relationship.

It is also largely a family dynamic in which there are black sheeps, good cops, bad cops, shining stars, etc, and as long as everyone plays their role correctly then everyone gets to continue the pattern, whatever it may be.

History

In the short history of Zen in America there are a few big names that have become infamous in the lineages I know about. Admittedly, I know very little about Zen in America in general, and so I will not even try to map out a list of teachers and their successors to show who was troubled and who was or is lacking in integrity. It’s not easy to get an authentic history for most teachers who came from other countries, particularly Japan.

It might be an interesting project for someone to map such a Zen family tree or perhaps it’s already done?

For this blog, I simply want to point out a pattern of teachers who were sent to America from Japan as Zen missionaries who had deep flaws that were not discussed openly, or supported effectively, to maintain integrity.

Suzuki was sent here after his wife was murdered by a crazy monk he allowed to live in his monastery in Japan. Sasaki was left here after he was expelled from Japan for creating a huge scandal in his home temple. Maezumi was sent here and, no one seems to know but, it has been felt that he may have been quite a rebel and perhaps sent here as an attempt to relocate him. Eido Shimano may have had trouble in Japan, but I don’t know of it. To my mind, this pattern of relocating monks who have caused trouble in Japan to America set the stage for a legacy of secrecy, covering up, forgetting, omitting, withholding, avoiding, and being defensive if questioned.

These patterns of behavior, mixed with a hierarchy that was strict and without accountability or tolerance for open questioning of authority, are a formula for a very dysfunctional spiritual path.

So the second generation of American students who trained with such teachers have had a great deal of secrecy, avoidance, withholding, and defensiveness around lack of integrity and the use or abuse of students.

So now we have an exponentially large pool of 3rd generation teachers who are starting to wake up out of what seems to be a multi-generational slumber and denial about the problems with much of the cornerstones of Zen training.

Lack of History

In a family dynamic of abuse, addiction, and enabling, it is almost impossible for the family members who are defensive and resistant to change to see their blind spots and the ways they contribute to the problems they decry.

It is easy to not see what is wrong with our pattern if we can’t look at where we have come from clearly. Those students who were trained by Sasaki did not even know he was a criminal who spent a year in prison in Japan for abusing money, power and sex.

So, how could they have known that they were inadvertently being trained to keep his secrets and make sure no one would ever find them out? They were all trained to enable him to do whatever he wanted, without being questioned or confronted. And if someone did confront him the entire sangha was trained to shun them, without really knowing what pattern of his they were enabling.

So in a large family, such as Zen is becoming with every new generation, it is a huge and widespread dynamic to open up to and see how deep it runs in our history. Very few really know how to do that kind of detective work since they have mostly been trained to enable silence and reject any exposure. And even if they do uncover the real stories, they don’t know what to do with such toxic information.

Zen training in America has largely been about learning not to look at the red flags, not to vocalize any fears about the red flags, and not to question those in power who tell you what it means to see clearly. So, when I try to bring up such deep thoughts about how things have gotten this way and how we might support each other in shifting our enabling training models, I mostly get ignored.

I know I’m hard to take in many ways, I’m often silly, arrogant, irritating, crazy, outspoken, and blunt. I don’t expect the Zen teachers culture to applaud me or laugh with me, but I do expect them to acknowledge that I am here too, and see that ignoring me when I suggest that we should reach out to those who might be vulnerable to an abusive teacher is an enabling part of the root problem. I expect them to answer my questions about why no one was told there were serious problems occurring until it was too late.

They continually congratulate each other for what they are doing and offer their condolences about how shitty it is and they say they are available for support. But they do not demand accountability and they do not offer practical solutions.

This is a generalization, of course, but I believe it is a fair one that captures the essence of the long standing culture of Zen in America which is still enabling bad things to happen to vulnerable people by not taking stronger stands for accountability and open communication, not to mention refining training standards to help ensure a safe transmission of the dharma that is strong enough to see through fear and anger, and the buddha’s honest truth when it is abusive and defensive.

Future

Zen has focused a lot on individual awakening and personal experience of true self, and this made sense in isolated communities or teacher-student relationships. But, now in a global marketplace, things have shifted in a way that needs group experiences of oneness and emptiness, collective awakenings.

Healing a family pattern of abuse and enabling means we all have to change. We all can see how our action, or inaction, contributes to the pain and patterns of the others.

We are no longer able to go somewhere else to work these issues out, because we are all here now. We should stick with it together — here, now — and wake up to the history of no history, and tell each other about each others blind spots so that we can all see more clearly through the eyes of our support systems.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/enabling-zen-history-history/feed/2True Dharma Is Not For Salehttp://sweepingzen.com/true-dharma-sale/
http://sweepingzen.com/true-dharma-sale/#commentsFri, 27 Sep 2013 03:10:45 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=532When it comes to Buddhism in the U.S., one important question is how we can support the dharma without making enlightenment another commodity to buy and sell? Our popular culture pushes the message that being successful or happy means getting a lot of attention for flashy skills or having a lot of money no matter ...

]]>When it comes to Buddhism in the U.S., one important question is how we can support the dharma without making enlightenment another commodity to buy and sell? Our popular culture pushes the message that being successful or happy means getting a lot of attention for flashy skills or having a lot of money no matter who is exploited, including animals.

So it’s important for us in the spiritual realm to have some beacon(s) of hope we can count on to exemplify the spiritual values of simplicity, generosity and compassion. This model helps to maintain the value of the Buddha’s teachings, so that the dharma can retain its purity and survive the pitfalls of our materialist culture.

Zen teachers have the potential to model such values by contributing their light freely to their sanghas and communities that are impacted by their presence, practice and leadership. Of course other renunciate Buddhist teachers model the integrity of true dharma such as Theravadan monks and nuns. However, Zen teachers are in a unique space because many are caught between the monastic and lay teacher models. They have vowed to save all beings, but also to work in the marketplace. So when Zen teachers manifest the balance and energy to support themselves with regular jobs, while volunteering their teachings, they are manifesting the Buddha’s integrity in a profound way. One that shows all lay practitioners that the dharma is sustainable, even in a vapid materialistic culture. If teachers and sanghas can raise the Bodhi mind humbly and freely, so can anybody who sincerely wants to.

Of course, many people strive to participate as much as their families and jobs allow. This can be discouraging, especially if the bar for practice is set at “enlightenment”. So the hope is that no one feels they cannot get enlightened unless they become a priest, for example. If they need to miss the summer angos or sesshins they are invited to practice acceptance. Acceptance might be the most wonderful koan for our culture of discontent and insatiable craving. If there is not a way to be in the zendo, the practice becomes bringing the “zendo mind” to the jobs, families and activities that are available.

If there is frustration about missing zazen, practice accepting that it is ok to feel frustration. There is nothing wrong with missing zazen. If there is fear that without a lot of sitting no spiritual progress will be made, then the koan becomes accepting that it is ok to feel fear. And never forget, progress is overrated. When ‘no progress’ is embraced, then progress can be made, in the acceptance of no progress.

The Buddha’s true teachings have nothing to do with sitting 90 Day angos, or offering dana. They are accessible to all beings freely everywhere. Zen has manifested the dharma in its purity by transmitting the authentic mind seal from generation to generation, freely and simply. Of corse, teachers who charge exorbitant prices or molest students cannot possibly be considered ambassadors of the true Dharma Eye.

Currently, Zen teachers have the special opportunity and challenge to manifest the undefiled dharma eye in perhaps it’s most daunting culture it has yet encountered: the United States of America. By bringing the Bodhi mind into the work and family arenas, Buddhism is given the chance to bloom in muddy waters. This may be more interesting and inspiring than the lotus blooming in calm, clear waters.

If it is freely given and freely received it can maintain it’s integrity and purity. May all buddhas dedicate their merits to the Bodhisattvas at home and at work taking care of their children and their employees or customers. Let the merits help ensure that the true dharma will not be subverted by the inherent corruption replete in our materialist pop culture, run by those who would choose a dystopic marketplace full of snakes over the simple, pure freedom of an awakened people. A life where all Buddhists may manifest the true dharma teachings by freely giving, receiving and sharing one mind, one body and one heart.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/true-dharma-sale/feed/5Dharma Teachers Should Be Paid A Shit Load, Or At Least Somethinghttp://sweepingzen.com/dharma-teachers-should-be-paid-shit-load-least-something/
http://sweepingzen.com/dharma-teachers-should-be-paid-shit-load-least-something/#commentsSat, 21 Sep 2013 16:25:40 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=525Dharma teachers should be paid a fair amount of money for their expertise and their abilities. Why isn’t meditation taught in schools? Why not in police stations and hospitals? Why isn’t it offered in corporations or government administrations? Why not in the military? It is simply not valued enough, not as a religion, but as ...

]]>Dharma teachers should be paid a fair amount of money for their expertise and their abilities.

Why isn’t meditation taught in schools? Why not in police stations and hospitals? Why isn’t it offered in corporations or government administrations? Why not in the military?

It is simply not valued enough, not as a religion, but as a practical way to foster peace and serenity, not to mention spiritual awakening.

I believe it would shift the planets energy towards peace if it were valued, implemented and supported for its full potential. Compassion and wisdom are priceless. This is because they are more valuable than any price we could pay, not because they are impractical or not valuable enough.

There is a sort of “free dharma” movement who’s members think Dharma teachers should not be compensated financially for their teachings. These voices, in my experience, are usually practitioners who are not authorized teachers themselves.

So what are we talking about? Well, the teachings for example include “introductions” to meditation, perhaps extended workshops, dharma talks, face to face teachings, books, articles or blogs, or “just” holding the space for meditation to happen. These are offered by teachers who must pay for utilities, maintenance, insurance, food, etc.

As i understand the complaint, since the Buddha didn’t charge set fees for his teachings no students seeking teachings should ever be asked to contribute to any of these teachings or activities. But, since the Buddha accepted offerings it is ok for teachers to accept their money as long as it is not asked for.

Let me be clear about my perspective, in our modern American culture, expecting the teacher to cover the overhead for you to come and be taught for free is ludicrous. Not to mention I don’t hear anyone pining for the good old celibate days. Things have changed, but the teachings are still pure, in their impurity.

The closest thing i can approximate this mentality to, which is in fact very different, is the 12 step model for support and guidance, I have been sober over 9 years and have done a lot of volunteer service work for free when I could afford it. I also sponsored people to work the steps with no expectation of payment. But when I had my daughter, as a single parent, I could not afford to pay $30 babysitting each time I wanted to go help others. Since no one was going to pay me to help troubled kids I dropped it. I did not expect to be paid because it was a service that kept me sober foremost. Plus I never officially studied or trained in how to lead such groups or be an effective leader. My only skill or quality was that I managed not to use drugs or get arrested for a year or so.

(However, there are paid positions in the 12 step organization to cover administration and salary expenses, and circuit speakers often get paid.)

Compare this to my training to be a Dharma teacher. This took 15 years of consistent weekly participation where I learned all the training positions, how to hold the space for groups and individuals in pain, I learned how to lead ceremonies that mark important life events and how to answer koans and teach the precepts. But most importantly I learned how to accept myself with compassion and realize that I am intimately connected to everyone else.

This is a skill that is hard to appraise. If I could teach you how to play the guitar we would both expect you to pay $30 an hour. But to teach you how to accept your life and find peace is trickier. In my experience learning to let go of attachments is a skill that requires very subtle feedback. Learning how to answer koans or discern emptiness is just as tangible as learning how to act with authentic emotion or be a martial artist, or develop the subtle sensitivity needed to move and balance qi. These latter examples all cost a great deal to perfect and no one expects to learn these life enhancing qualities for free.

I don’t know why anyone would expect to learn how to end suffering for free, all I can really say is that I need a certain amount of resources to be able to offer this support.

Money is empty, it is not good or bad, asking for it is not good or bad, giving it is not good or bad. Renunciation also is empty, it is not valuable or ethical in itself. It does not really exist and we cannot absolutely renunciate the basic necessities of life. The buddha never turned down a meal and he accepted offerings, this is not renunciation, this is modesty. He simply took what he needed and didn’t ask for more. Of course when he expected others to dedicate their entire lives to his path and support his cause full time was no modest compensation.

Of course we all want teachers to have modest appetites. Most dharma teachers are very modest, I don’t know any Zen teachers first hand who have more than 2 luxury cars or excessive profits in their personal bank account from teaching. The teachers that have charged exorbitant amounts for basic teachings are basically shunned by the dharma community and not referred students anymore. This is exceptional and we have learned better how to identify these behaviors and how to warn people against them.

We should not use such poor examples to judge the value of teaching in general. In my “monastic” experience it takes about 15 years of training to begin teaching and 20 to be “certified”. Of course we begin with teaching introduction classes, then teaching basics classes, and so on. Most of these beginning teaching opportunities are voluntary and any money given goes to the temple fund. This general fund feeds the temples utilities, maintenance and the teachers salaries or stipends. the standards are generally high for fully authorized teachers.

No doubt we should have standards. Teachers should be transparent about their finances, they should not be greedy, and they should never charge fees based on a promise that “enlightenment” will happen any faster than usual, or present themselves as giving students anything they don’t already have.

These standards are quite profound and so the value of authentic Buddhist teachings is great. Most people who practice know its value in todays culture, and many donate as generously as they can. We all want to give and we don’t want to be stingy. And we want sincerity and authenticity from the teachers we entrust this generosity. This is not too much to ask.

Today we have many ways to invite support. Whether we have a donation basket in sight, or we openly ask for donations in person, in emails or fundraisers the message is sent passively or actively.

To complicate it further, asking for money is an art of sorts. Some personalities find it more natural and some don’t. Teachers have issues with money just like anyone. I personally struggle with self worth and find it very hard to ask for fair compensation for my time. I make under 20k a year for managing and bookkeeping a temple and we decided to stop asking for teacher dana. I am not complaining about this because I’m very happy with my life and feel I have enough and I feel rich. I have never charged for daisan or dharma talks and I dont plan to. But I would love to teach meditation in schools or hospitals or corporations and make enough money to pay for my basic needs. Why should this be unethical to hope for?

I can’t say I have easy answers. Perhaps people should be asked to tithe, or give 10% of their profit. Public and private corporations might give 10% of their profits to a “peace of mind” fund for meditation for their employees. There could be teachers for classes in secondary schools to teach this to kids, between the arts and music classes that got cut? Maybe the military could offer meditation to our troops to help them manage PTSD and stress before it goes too far? In my perfect world this would be the case.

We should appreciate full time teachers and try to create a culture of support for them, we should help them fill these important needs in our society. If teachers are expected to support themselves they won’t be available to fill such needs. We have a clear need for meditation. Most schools, non-profits and businesses welcome free meditation. There just aren’t enough independently wealthy certified teachers to do the job for free.

This is not about me as a teacher trying to defend the money I need to teach. This is about us as a culture seeing the desperate need for meditation in our mainstream ending the suffering of our wold. We have an amazing opportunity to help meditation to be embraced by our mass market culture. We can all begin creating a mentality and spirit of generosity and abundance with the Dharma that starts with taking care of our Dharma teachers.

Otherwise, if you want to play a game where I pretend not to need money for food and shelter and you pretend you’re not expected to contribute to this then just ignore the dana coffer strategically stationed at the exit. And if you hope meditation is never budgeted into schools or corporations or the military please start by throwing out all of your dharma books that compensated some kind teacher to sweat it out.

The Dharma is so important to continue. Claiming it is in a special category that is unethical to monetize only makes it harder to integrate into our mainstream awareness. We should be talking about how to support teachers better than we do rather than why we should not pay them anything.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/dharma-teachers-should-be-paid-shit-load-least-something/feed/67Zen on the Yellow Brick Roadhttp://sweepingzen.com/zen-yellow-brick-road/
http://sweepingzen.com/zen-yellow-brick-road/#commentsFri, 23 Aug 2013 17:12:14 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=496When we start to practice we bring our fears and issues that we have used to define ourselves throughout our life. We might initially come to Zen because we think it will give us peace of mind or relaxation, but if we stick with it we come to realize that what we really get is ...

]]>When we start to practice we bring our fears and issues that we have used to define ourselves throughout our life. We might initially come to Zen because we think it will give us peace of mind or relaxation, but if we stick with it we come to realize that what we really get is the opportunity to sit face to face with all our painful issues that we are hoping to avoid. It takes a lot of courage, determination and faith to face this wall and push through it.

Especially when we have a lot of fear or anger underneath the surface it is easy for us to feel scared to face this. Since we have developed ways to manage these emotions and keep them under control we worry that if we take the lid off the box then everything will explode and we will create too much suffering.

But the truth is that if we continue along this path and face our fears and anger it turns our that there is really nothing to be afraid of and that the anger is not nearly as scary as we thought it would be. And further that we are not nearly as bad as we thought we were.

Once we see behind the curtain we realize that the worst or scariest parts of ourselves are simply our true selves we have hidden away trying to find protection and safety by projecting an image of great anger or fear.

So if you have begun to practice and realize there is more pain than peace, or you hit a wall and get discouraged, just know that this is just the beginning of a much bigger journey that does end in finding your true self, including the compassion, wisdom and courage you’ve always known was really there.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/zen-yellow-brick-road/feed/0The Emptiness of Egypthttp://sweepingzen.com/the-emptiness-of-egypt/
http://sweepingzen.com/the-emptiness-of-egypt/#commentsSat, 17 Aug 2013 23:11:16 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=492This is a spiritual fact, from a Zen point of view, not an opinion or a judgment. It is neither good nor bad and it is neither an excuse to do or not do anything in particular. It’s easy to see there is tremendous suffering and pain there now. So what does it mean that ...

]]>This is a spiritual fact, from a Zen point of view, not an opinion or a judgment. It is neither good nor bad and it is neither an excuse to do or not do anything in particular.

It’s easy to see there is tremendous suffering and pain there now. So what does it mean that it is empty and how can this realization help us to end the suffering there, if we intend that?

Since this is not a political or journalistic article the topic will be the emotional aspect of Egypt’s crisis and how to contribute to their healing.

The politics may be complicated but the emotions are simple. The people are angry, desperate, fearful, sad and disappointed.

The emptiness is the truth that we all share these emotions and therefore they belong to no one in particular and have no particular form. We can all experience the emptiness of these emotions if we see they are universal and always changing. How do we do this? We practice letting go of the stories about why we feel these feelings, we practice being still with these feelings at their root and letting them move energetically.

By allowing these feelings to move through us we can let them go. Once this happens we no longer have to tell any stories about what makes us feel anything. Nothing makes us feel anything, rather, we make up stories to explain how we already feel. If we feel insecure we will choose an unstable situation and put all our faith into it, which guarantees we will be let down and feel all the insecurity we have.

Reality is empty, and so we project our own form onto it. Egypt has consciously and unconsciously projected a collective spirit of instability and anger onto its reality, and now it feels all of this and the feelings it has built up over many generations. Now it has the political situation to justify these feelings.

The emptiness of Egypt means that it will continue to change. It can become stable and peaceful or it can become more unstable and violent. The emotions of it’s people will create the projection that will dictate this change. If possible, a healthy shift in the emotions will lead to a healthy change in the form and function of its politics and structure.

So how can we participate in this shift towards ending suffering? The hard answer is that we must participate in our own painful emotions that connect us to Egypt. We can feel our own anger, rage, fear and sadness, and do it in this context of connecting with those who feel this way there. If we do this with the intention of sharing the burden of these feelings, we can help carry the load of painful emotional energy they are unfairly burdened with at this time. This act of sharing the emotional energy will energetically relieve their pressure and give them a bit more space to let their intuition or true self shine.

If everyone in the US did this today Egypt would be peaceful tomorrow. Since they are empty they do not need to fight and they do not need to be suppressed. They undoubtedly have a leader in their midst who could unify their hearts and give them security and peace if they could open up to this reality.

If we can see that we share the emptiness of Egypt and that our empty emotions connect us in a universal way that does not need a particular story to justify, we can also share their burden and end their suffering in the same moment we end ours, by being one with the anger, fear and sadness of all beings.

And hopefully, in return they will share our suffering when we feel overwhelmed, stuck and hopeless.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/the-emptiness-of-egypt/feed/2Zen Needs Therapyhttp://sweepingzen.com/zen-needs-therapy/
http://sweepingzen.com/zen-needs-therapy/#commentsSun, 11 Aug 2013 21:59:40 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=486Although they have different parents they may look alike, act alike and even have the same goals, but an intimate relationship between them has never quite been accepted. Zen people say that combining therapy with Zen will water it down, turn it into something different, inauthentic or shallow. Therapy people say that to introduce spiritual ...

]]>Although they have different parents they may look alike, act alike and even have the same goals, but an intimate relationship between them has never quite been accepted.

Zen people say that combining therapy with Zen will water it down, turn it into something different, inauthentic or shallow.

Therapy people say that to introduce spiritual practice such as mediation or the concept of enlightenment into therapy will make it unprofessional, subjective and woo woo.

I say boo-who, and that both have very important, even essential, elements to offer each other. To combine the best of both makes a very strong practice.

The vocabulary of therapy has given us terms like ego, projection, transference, triggers, emotional patterns, family dynamics, behavioral problems, etc. as well as concepts like having a “story”.

Zen, in turn, has given us terms like no-self, oneness, emptiness, being the emotion, letting go of the self, dropping the story, etc.

We now have the vocabulary to identify and work on profound personal issues and problems with more subtlety and efficacy than ever before, should we be willing to embrace this cultural-spiritual revolution.

For example, when a Zen student is struggling with painful emotional issues and does not understand why, if we tell them to just cut off the thoughts and be one with the pain… they may be able to cut off or suppress the thoughts, but not necessarily resolve the core issues creating the thoughts.

There is a great scene in the movie “The Piano” where the natives who have never seen an onstage play are watching the shadows lit behind a screen. They assume it is really happening so they attack the screen to save the damsel in distress. We are like this when we are projecting our old issues onto this screen we call reality. We attack our reality thinking it is real, but it is empty. If we see this we can enjoy the play rather than attack the screen. If we can see how we are projecting our childhood issues onto our current situation we can see through it and experience the emptiness.

In therapy we may get a lot of support to learn and tell our story and see how we project it into our current situations. However, if we are not given the space and support to sit quietly with the emotions that are connected with this story we cannot process and let of these stuck emotions on the deepest level.

We hold the energy of our childhood pain and trauma deep in our cells. If we learned to flinch or tighten when we were scared or abused and then we develop that way we grow up with this tightness as part of our being. It takes tremendous amount of sitting still and quietly for this tightness to loosen up. Once we loosen up all that energy begins to release, and we relive the pain. We practice sitting still with the pain and learning to be intimate with it and comfortable enough to feel it without running away.

Therapy can help us identify this pain and the patterns we have created around it, but it cannot help us be still enough to let it release and let it go, for good.

If a Zen teacher cannot help a student identify emotional patterns that block oneness the student may become enlightened but unhappy or cause more suffering. If a therapist cannot help a client let go of their emotional pain on the deepest level, the client may become self-aware but still unhappy.

Of course Zen teachers and therapists will never adopt the full practice of each other’s roles and expertise. But they can learn, without feeling threatened, enough from each other to help end suffering for their students and clients.

It’s important to be able to tell our story in order to make sense of our issues and patterns. Once we know our story then we can practice letting it go as we become intimate with our emotions. And learning to identify stuck emotional patterns as well as learning not to project will get us to a place of accepting what we need to do to accomplish this path much faster.

These are a few of so many examples of how Zen and therapy can work together to create an incredibly strong foundation for self-awareness and awakening to no-self awareness.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/zen-needs-therapy/feed/9Gradual Enlightenment Is Better?http://sweepingzen.com/gradual-enlightenment-is-better/
http://sweepingzen.com/gradual-enlightenment-is-better/#commentsFri, 12 Jul 2013 01:52:06 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=464Of course this classic debate among Zen schools is intellectual and dualistic. So what, it brings up important and practical questions about what it means to be enlightened and what it looks like in action. First of all, lets define enlightenment as being selfless, compassionate, wise and present, and throw in for good measure the ...

]]>Of course this classic debate among Zen schools is intellectual and dualistic.

So what, it brings up important and practical questions about what it means to be enlightened and what it looks like in action.

First of all, lets define enlightenment as being selfless, compassionate, wise and present, and throw in for good measure the realization that everyone and everything is connected in oneness. This should mean, for example, that an enlightened person puts the care of others before satisfying selfish desires, and is able to communicate with honesty and integrity about any struggles with this. Which adds another quality to being enlightened, which is struggling with issues and being able to communicate about them with integrity.

So sudden enlightenment is a spontaneous awakening to our oneness with all things and the perfection of our life, such as the Buddha had when he saw the morning star under the Bhodi tree. He said “Wonder of wonders, all living beings are truly enlightened and shine with wisdom and virtue.”

It can be as grand as an earth shattering experience or a simple ah-ha moment.

This sudden awakening experience is described in every spiritual tradition in one way or another. In Zen it is emphasized especially in the Rinzai lineage as crucial to spiritual enlightenment.

There are even specific practices used to facilitate this kind of awakening such as koans like “mu” or cultivating “doubt” using questions like “what is it” or “who am I”, or even shouts and hits to shake up our stuck intellects and snap us back to here-now.

The idea is that when enough effort and energy is poured into our questioning we exhaust our dualistic mind and finally push beyond dualism into the realm of the absolute, where oneness and emptiness are experienced spontaneously.

Gradual enlightenment, on the other hand, is the slow, patient process of growing and maturing in our practice through consistent discipline and progress. The consistent and persistent practice of being mindful of our activities leads us to progressively refine our experience of emptiness and oneness in our daily life. The Soto Zen School tends to embrace this more.

Maybe we can all agree that manifesting enlightenment in daily activities is the most profound expression?

But the ‘sudden school’ says the kensho experience is what makes this possible in the first place. Whereas, for the ‘gradual school’ there’s no merit in kensho unless refined discipline and consistent practice manifest the enlightened life.

Of course both sides have essential points and they are not exclusive.

But I say that the gradual process of awakening is more important to embrace in a spiritual path for several reasons. First of all, the sudden kensho experience is kind of like grace in that it cannot be guaranteed as a result of practice. Some people have a better chance at it if they do practice with more effort and determination, but ultimately we could never judge the merit of anyone’s practice by using kensho as a measuring stick.

Second of all, kensho isn’t meant to take care of long-term emotional and behavioral patterns, and it doesn’t do this. This has been proven over again by ‘enlightened’ charismatic Zen teachers exposed to be abusive to their students in many ways.

Having a kensho experience may help us to see our karma more clearly, but it will not change our long-term patterns of emotion and behavior and addictions.

Oprah made the term Ah-ha moment popular to describe spiritual awakenings that can be very subtle or very powerful.

I encourage students to see all our little Ah-ha moments as enlightenment experiences.This is a simple yet powerful to embrace our inherent wisdom and compassion that is our true self, and is available everyday in ordinary ways.

To sit waiting for an earthshaking experience to tell us we are enlightened is not going to help us get there, it will only hold us back from appreciating our ordinary lives as extra-ordinary. Which they are. But we should still strive wholeheartedly with every ounce of effort to see that our little awakenings are our true selves being enlightened.

If we do happen to fall over in spasms of ecstatic oneness while we are appreciating our ordinary lives then great, whoop dee fuckin do, but it has nothing to do with reality, it’s more of an emotional and psychological breakthrough that only has value when it brings us back full circle to appreciating our pain, sharing our issues, cleaning our messes and apologizing when we hurt the people we love. Because that’s part of being human, enlightened or not.

If a grand opening helps us to care more about others than ourselves and communicate about our issues and struggles with integrity and compassion then it is a wonderful spiritual awakening, but these things will happen with sincere long term practice whether we fall over laughing or not.

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/gradual-enlightenment-is-better/feed/5Zen Training for the Heart?http://sweepingzen.com/zen-training-for-the-heart/
http://sweepingzen.com/zen-training-for-the-heart/#commentsSun, 23 Jun 2013 05:04:09 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=445Zen is in an interesting phase of transformation in America and as usual, will continue to adapt to its new environment and incorporate the best and worst of its new American culture and form. The standard expectations are that Zen training should facilitate enlightenment, concentration, an experience of oneness and emptiness, wisdom, compassion and discipline. ...

]]>Zen is in an interesting phase of transformation in America and as usual, will continue to adapt to its new environment and incorporate the best and worst of its new American culture and form.

The standard expectations are that Zen training should facilitate enlightenment, concentration, an experience of oneness and emptiness, wisdom, compassion and discipline.

But it seems more and more obvious that these exceptional qualities alone are falling short of the spiritual integrity we also expect from teachers. We want Zen masters to have mastered the virtues of honesty, transparency, healthy boundaries, chastity, empathy, emotional maturity and emotional intelligence, as well as the ability to communicate all of these things clearly.

These virtues were not emphasized in the classic books on Zen that I started reading, and certainly there was no mention of Zen masters having issues with anger, power abuse, addictions or sexual misconduct.

Do we have the right to expect that Zen teachers should achieve the highest standards of emotional intelligence and behavioral integrity as part of the package of ‘enlightenment’?

If we do have the right to expect this Zen will need some restructuring of the core training methods for students. For example, supporting very open, non-hierarchical discussions about emotional issues and education in boundary work, addiction awareness, communication techniques, etc.

I feel that if emotional issues are not addressed in Zen training directly then the dharma that is transmitted will lack the foundation necessary to insure that teachers can effectively manifest the emptiness of their emotional issues through openness, transparency and communication.

If we cannot talk about our emotional issues and our histories we are holding onto them, perhaps secretly guarding them. This kind of silence creates the form of emotional pain, and if we repeat patterns of behaviors that cause suffering we cannot manifest emptiness.

It’s not particularly difficult to experience the oneness of all things, or learn to answer koans correctly. But it is very difficult to manifest oneness in our lives when we are triggered, upset, angry, scared, anxious, in love or horny.

And so that’s where I say we need to work the hardest.

A Zen teacher should be able to experience the emptiness of all these emotions by sharing them and letting them go. Being able to communicate about these difficult feelings and letting go of stuck emotional patterns in a timely and appropriate way is the awakened way.

This means that Zen training and leadership in America should call for a shift from stoic reticence about emotional issues and addictions and expect more vulnerable and honest discussions from our teachers and seniors.

This can help ensure that every student that enters Zen training will gain as much emotional awareness as possible and learn to communicate about their issues while learning to let go of them effectively and efficiently. This culture of communication may greatly decrease the chances for abuse to occur in the new generation of sanghas.

I think its fair to expect Zen training should awaken the heart as well as the mind!

]]>http://sweepingzen.com/zen-training-for-the-heart/feed/0The Emptiness of My Fatherhttp://sweepingzen.com/the-emptiness-of-my-father/
http://sweepingzen.com/the-emptiness-of-my-father/#commentsSun, 16 Jun 2013 23:26:16 +0000http://zencomprehensible.com/?p=435He was angry when he drove, especially when we were running late to do something fun. He never called to say I love you, but he always supported me in my spiritual path to loving myself. I learned in high school that I, too, had anger issues, and that I mostly took them out on ...

]]>He was angry when he drove, especially when we were running late to do something fun.

He never called to say I love you, but he always supported me in my spiritual path to loving myself.

I learned in high school that I, too, had anger issues, and that I mostly took them out on myself. I learned in college that I was upset about some of my childhood memories and that much of my life was a reaction to that feeling. I learned after college that I acted a lot like my father did, and that I projected my issues with him onto everyone I got close to in one way or another.

In Zen I sat with my father’s anger for 10 years. We wrestled as I sat spinning webs of stories about him and all things like him, becoming intimate with the rage. I learned to relax into a bottomless pool of frustration that was bigger than any memory or any experience could ever be.

I relaxed until we could sit together, me and my father’s anger, comfortably. We knew each other so well and eventually we realized we had no idea where each other came from or why we were there together, we just were.

And so we became friends, and soon we were even comfortable enough to be seen in public together. We were proud to know each other and our wrestling became a dance.

We learned to protect each other in this dance, and realized that we had been doing just that all along. I had felt protected when my father’s anger sprang out of me, and now I feel protected when my father’s anger gently reminds me that something doesn’t feel quite right.

We can talk about it, we can feel it, we can let it go. We can let each other go.

Some moments I can still dip my toes into the bottomless pool, some moments I know I must communicate how angry I am in order to let it go, some moments there is nothing to be angry about and no anger to express.

My father’s anger has become empty for the time being, and so has his love, his fear, his insecurity and his integrity. I feel his form in my bones and hear his voice in my throat. We are intimate and we are friends. We don’t know where each other came from and we don’t know why we are here together, but we are.